Luke and Elliot Peke looked around the large throne room they had been escorted to by the inner guards. A large statue of a turtle with spikes sticking out of its shell glared down at them as it stood on its back legs. Red spots glowed where the eyes were carved in the head of the thing.

“I wonder if that's supposed to be the Lava King,” said Elliot. He walked around the statue, hands in his pockets.

“Don't break it,” said Luke. “We're just here to ask for directions, and then to leave. The last thing we want to do is fight a monster turtle.”

“But it would be a great story to tell,” said Elliot. He paused in his circling.

“Who are we going to tell without getting into trouble?,” asked Luke.

“Jeff,” said Elliot.

“He hates you,” said Luke. “Try again.”

“Polly,” said Elliot.

“She hates you more than Jeff,” said Luke. “Especially after what you did to Molly.”

“I can't think of anyone else,” said Elliot. “Mom would lose her biscuits.”

“I think you should keep this to yourself,” said Luke. “That will prevent a lot of trouble.”

“I guess you're right,” said Elliot. “The last thing I need is to be treated like the idiot.”

Luke held his tongue about that. His brother wasn't dumb, but his enthusiasm caused problems that angered everyone around him. If he kept that in check, he might be able to keep his friends when he made them.

Telling him would make him act the opposite way. That was the way Elliot did things.

“Hello, boys,” said the subject of the statue as he stepped into the room.

“How do you do, sir?,” said Luke. “I'm Luke Peke. This is my brother, Elliot.”

“I'm the great and mighty Lava King,” said the giant spiked turtle. He loomed over the brothers.

“It's a pleasure to meet you,” said Luke. A little string of fear ran up his back. “We met someone on the road who said you can give us directions.”

“Directions?,” said the Lava King. Flame and smoke snorted in his nostrils. “What kind of directions?”

“We're hoping you know an exit from this underground place,” said Elliot. “We fell down a pipe and we're trying to get home.”

“A pipe, eh?,” said the King. “A big green pipe?”

He held his hands out at the ends of his extended arms to indicate the width of the pipe in question. The brothers noted the long nails on the end of the fingers. Luke made sure he was out of reach.

“That's about right,” said Luke. “We think it's in the roof of this cave. Do you know how we can climb back up to the outside?”

“You can't,” said the King. He gave a growling laugh. “You would have to be able to fly. Can either of you fly?”

“No,” said Luke. “Is there any other way to get back home from here?”

“I don't have any idea,” said the King. His smile revealed enormous triangular teeth. “Why don't you wait in my guest quarters until I know for sure.”

“That would be okay,” said Luke. “How long do you think it would take? We have to get home as soon as we can. Our mother will start looking for us, and we'll get in trouble.”

“Don't worry, boys,” said the King. He whistled and his guards appeared. “You'll be seeing your mother soon enough.”

The King gestured with one of his massive paws. He gave a low growling laugh.

“Take these boys down to the guest quarters,” said the King. “As soon as I figure out where they came from, we'll do some exploring.”

The guards clashed their spears against the floor. The commander waved at his turtles to surround the Pekes while he led the way from the throne room. It was a long walk to the designated area of the palace.

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Luke and Elliot walked along meekly. Guest quarters couldn't be that bad, and they didn't have much choice. Luke refused to say how this was Elliot's fault. He wanted to get out of the castle and he couldn't do that without his brother going along with any plan they came up with to escape.

On the other hand, the guest quarters seemed to be down in the basement of the castle somewhere by the way the guards kept leading them down. Luke didn't like that observation at all.

“I don't like this at all,” whispered Elliot. “I thought the guest quarters would be upstairs somewhere.”

Luke shook his head. He didn't want the guards to think they weren't going along with the program. That would lead to a fight. He wasn't sure they were ready for a fight against their forces at the moment.

He wanted to at least pretend the guest quarters were reasonable before he decided to break out of them and head back upstairs.

He also wanted only a nominal guard instead of an alert and armed patrol who seemed ready for any trouble that might come their way. If Elliot hadn't shown off, they might have a chance to break out on the stairs with their Peke Teke.

They still could, but he noted the way the guards kept their hands on their weapons and seemed ready for a fight. As long as they pretended to go along, they had a chance when they got to the guest quarters. They could blow the door down as long no one was watching.

Then they could fight their way out of the castle.

He doubted the turtles could handle them in a straight fight.

The turtles pointed to a door at the end of a long hall lit up by torches in holders near the top of the walls. One of them jogged down and opened the door for them. The commander gestured for the brothers to enter the room.

“This doesn't look like guest quarters,” said Elliot. “Can we have a room with a view?”

“Go in,” said Luke. “Don't start trouble before we have a plan.”

“Do you have a plan right now?,” said Elliot.

“I have part of a plan,” said Luke. “The part I have is to go into the guest quarters and wait for a chance to do things.”

“All right,” said Elliot. “It still doesn't look like guest quarters to me.”

He stepped into the room.

“Thanks for bringing us down here,” said Luke. “Could you get us some soda?”

He stepped into the room. He frowned at the chains on the walls and the lack of windows. The turtles slammed the door shut. The room descended into darkness.

“Some guest quarters,” said Elliot.

“See if you can find a torch,” said Luke. A small gleam hovered in the air. He thought that was a key hole for the door. He walked toward it and put his eye to it. He could see the better lit hall on the other side of the door.

He didn't see the guard he expected to be posted outside the door. Maybe they didn't think he and his brother could escape from the dungeon. He planned to prove them wrong about that.

“I think I found a torch,” said Elliot. “I'm not sure.”

“Try to light it so we can have something to see by,” said Luke.

Elliot held his hand over the end of the stick he had found. He summoned the fireball he used to set things on fire. He noted that he had put the wrong end in the flame of his power. He reversed the ends and set a cloth wrapped around the stick on fire. He let his hand drop, and power fade, as the torch lit the space up.

“The guest quarters suck,” Elliot said as he looked around.

“We're not here to be guests,” said Luke. “It looks like we'll have to bust out and get away from here as soon as possible.”

“But we don't know how to get home,” said Elliot.

“We're not going to find out locked up in here,” said Luke. “We should head back to talk to the mushroom people.”

“They didn't look like they had anything that could fly,” said Elliot.

“They also didn't seem like they would lock us up for asking some questions,” said Luke. “So the first thing is to get out of here. Then we have to get out of this castle. Then we should go back to the village and ask for directions.”

“All right,” said Elliot. “So we have to fight the turtles. I hope they're not ninjas.”

Luke groaned at the joke. He shook his head. Then he walked to the door and looked out through the keyhole. He saw a piece of the guard partially blocking the door.

If they wanted out, they would have to knock the guard out, and knock the door down. He didn't see that being quiet no matter what they did. Maybe they could knock the door down, maybe not.

“Let's see what we can do,” said Luke. “Get ready.”

The brothers summoned balls of energy to their hands. They fell into their pitching stances as Luke held up his other hand to countdown with his fingers. When the fingers had become a fist, they threw their missiles at the door.

Luke had aimed for the lock. He wanted to knock it out with his blast. If he could do that, they could just push the door open and walk away.

Elliot aimed for the narrow window at the top of the door. His fireball passed through the narrow space between the bars without touching either of them. It landed on top of the guard and blew him up. He landed a few yards down the hall.

Luke flung another ball at the lock. He smiled when it blew up. He ran to the door and jumped at it. The door flew open so they could get a move on.

Elliot made sure to kick the stunned turtle as they passed. The guard refused to move after that because of the additional electricity running through his system.

Another guard stood inside the door separating the cell block from the rest of the castle. He leaped forward, sliding along the floor on his shell. The brothers split so the guard passed between them without hitting either one of them. Luke threw a fireball that lifted the guard up in an explosion and threw him against the far wall.

“You took him in a snap,” said Elliot. “That was pretty cool.”

“We have to get out of here before we can pat each other on the back,” said Luke. He ran to the inner door and tried it. He shook his head at it being locked.

“We need a key,” he said. He ran back to the turtle that had been guarding access to the castle. He found a key after a second of looking. He ran back to the door and unlocked it.

“Let's get out of here,” he said.